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Old 01-02-2014, 07:51 AM   #10
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Join Date: Nov 2007
Location: Fayetteville, GA, USA
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Originally Posted by NN5I View Post
Do you really think so? I believe that any study method that focuses on the particular questions can lead only to rote memorization and very seldom to any understanding at all.

To learn any subject, one must study that subject. Learning to pick out from a short list an answer one has seen before is not remotely similar to studying the subject.
The old school way of getting a ham license, back when I got mine, was to have the applicant more or less fully equipped to be a functioning radio operator the day he passed the tests. If you passed the tests, then you had "arrived" and were certified "Competent."

Now days the test and license philosophy is "granting permission to learn further." Most of what a new ham actually "learns", that is the usable knowledge and skills that stick with you, he will acquire after he is licensed, not before. If you pass the test, you are "getting started" and are certified "not an idiot"

Learn all you can, but memorizing the questions, passing the tests and jumping in and just get started is the way it's done now.

And if you need help there are clubs, forums, books, the guy down the street, all sorts of resources.
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